Poisoned
by Klutzygirl33
Summary: An unknown enemy poisons Joan, and the CIA goes on the hunt for who did it. Joan/Arthur


**Disclaimer**: I don't own Covert Affairs and never will. No copyright infringement intended.

**Author's Note**: Written for the hc_bingo prompt _poisoning_.

* * *

Joan isn't sure what's happening to her. One minute she was perfectly fine, the next she was nauseated and throwing up. She passed out a few minutes later.

When Joan wakes up, she's in the hospital. That isn't surprising. What is surprising is that Arthur isn't with her and she's alone. "I've finally succeeded in driving him away." Joan knew she'd do it someday. She gets paranoid and assumes the worst, and it's ruined her marriage. Arthur doesn't want to be with her anymore.

"Hello, Mrs. Campbell. How are you feeling?" asks a doctor who comes into her room.

"What's wrong with me?" Joan isn't one to beat around the bush. She's not in any pain, but that could obviously changed.

The doctor sighed. "Mrs. Campbell, you've been poisoned. We're not sure with what exactly, but it's being worked on. I'm sorry to tell you this, but you won't make it if an antidote isn't found. Now, how are you feeling?"

Joan stared at him in shock. It's probably an old enemy of hers that wants revenge. She knows that the CIA will be on whoever did this. She'll be saved. "Where's my husband?"

"Mr. Campbell said he was pursuing leads on who did this to you and he'll be here as soon as possible. Stop avoiding the question, Mrs. Campbell. How are you feeling?" The doctor had heard about Joan Campbell, but he had never expected her to be this stubborn.

"I'm not feeling anything right now," Joan admitted. She was still a little bit nauseated, however. That probably wasn't going to go away until this was taken care of. Joan had been born a Foster. Fosters do not give up. Her father (also in the CIA) had taught her that.

"That's not surprising. I'm sorry, but we can't give you any pain medication in case it interacts badly with whatever's poisoned you." The doctor turned around and left.

Now by herself, Joan turned on the TV. There was nothing else to do. She'd wait for someone from the CIA to stop by and tell her who did this. And then she'd take the antidote for the poison.

After a few hours, Joan started to experience some pain. She shifted around uncomfortably and bit back a cry of pain. "I want Arthur," she murmured to herself. Admitting that was a weakness. Fosters didn't have weaknesses, but that was hard to remember when Joan was poisoned.

Annie and Auggie entered her room about fifteen minutes later. "We're looking into all of your old cases," Annie explained to her boss.

"That's great. Thank you, Annie and Auggie." She'd be mean, but Joan didn't really have the energy. Her walls were down for the first time in a long time.

"We'll find whoever did this to you, and you'll be okay," Auggie assured her. He smiled at her. About ten minutes later, the two CIA agents left to go find leans for Joan.

Seven hours later, Joan was tired of lying in the hospital bed. She never could sit still for very long. And despite the fact that she was in pain, she slowly stood up and went to start walking across her room.

"I'm going home," she informed the nurse that came into her room twenty minutes later. Joan had made up her mind. It was obvious that they hadn't found who had done this to her yet, and if she was going to die, Joan wanted to do it at home. She didn't want to die in the hospital.

"Mrs. Campbell, you can't do that. You've been poisoned. Stay here so the doctors can take care of you. You'll get the best care," the nurse tried to convince her.

"I can and I will. I am Joan Campbell. No one tells me what to do. I'm signing out AMA, and you cannot stop me. I'm getting my things and going home." Joan had no idea how she managed to take charge like this when she was feeling so horrible, but wasn't about to question it.

The nurse sighed. "Whatever you want, Mrs. Campbell." She helped gather up Joan's clothes and then turned around and walked out.

Joan called a taxi and was able to make it home within a forty-five minute time frame. She started up her laptop to find out which one of her enemies had poisoned her. "Come on, you can't be this deep in hiding," she murmured.

When she started to get dizzy, Joan decided to quit. She wasn't getting anywhere and she was really tired and hurting. She got up to go to the kitchen when the door opened and Arthur stepped in. "Joan, what are you doing?" he asked his wife.

"I'm going to die, so I might as well do it as home. Hope someone can find whoever did this to me before that, though." She stared at the kitchen counters as they faded in and out.

"You're not going to die, Joan. And you shouldn't be up. You should be back in that hospital where they were taking care of you." Arthur didn't want to think about his wife dying. It hurt too much.

"No, I told you. I don't want to die in that hospital, alone. Why weren't you there anyway?" Joan was thisclose to passing out, and she was determined to stay awake for this conversation for as long as she could.

"Joan, I was trying to find out who did this to you when I got a call from the hospital that you had gone home." Arthur went to grab her hand to lead her back to their bedroom, but she resisted.

"I am a Foster and a Campbell. We don't give up. But I'm going to die, Arthur. At least then you'll be free of me." Joan knew that Arthur didn't love her anymore. She didn't know why he was still trying to make their marriage work.

"What does that even mean?" Arthur asked her. Joan didn't get a chance to answer, however, as everything suddenly went black.

She woke up in their bed. "It hurts," she murmured to Arthur. Joan didn't think she could ever be in this amount of pain.

"I know it does, Baby. I'm here for you." Arthur rubbed her back to calm her down.

"How long was I out?" Joan didn't know what time it was at all.

"It's 3:00 in the morning. You've been sleeping for about seven hours now. Just rest. I'm not leaving your side." Arthur wanted to research this himself, but he wasn't about to leave his wife alone.

"Any news?" Joan didn't think there'd be any, but it didn't hurt to ask.

Arthur shook his head. "Nothing, but everyone is still looking into it. Everything else has been stopped. I have all the agents on this." Arthur had pulled some of the best agents off other cases. Joan was more important than anything else.

"You shouldn't have done that." Joan meant it. If they were going to find out who poisoned her, the CIA probably would have found them already. It was too late for her.

"Joan, look at me. I would do anything for you. I love you. That's never going to change." Arthur smiled at her.

"You mean that?" Joan would never really show her insecurity, but she was vulnerable and dying right now. She could do anything she wanted.

"Of course I do. I know we've had our problems, but I've never ever stopped loving you. Don't doubt my feelings for you." Arthur leaned over and kissed her.

Arthur and Joan didn't leave the bed for hours. He was there for her and comforted his wife as she threw up multiple times and cried from the pain she was in.

The phone rang at 7:00 in the morning. Joan moaned in pain. "I've got it. You're okay. What's up?" asked Arthur.

"We've found out who poisoned Joan and what it is and what the antidote is," explained Jai Wilcox.

Arthur sighed in relief. "We'll go back to the hospital now. Thank you so much, Jai." He hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Joan had no idea what time it was or what was going on.

"It was Jai. They've found an antidote, Baby. We're going to the hospital." Arthur smiled at her, happy for the first time in nearly twenty-four hours.

"I can't get up, Arthur." Joan didn't have the energy to do anything, which wasn't surprising. She never wanted to feel this way again.

"That's okay," Arthur assured her. He picked his wife up and headed to their car. He tried not to hurt her anymore than she already was.

"You're carrying me over the threshold again. Love it." Joan smiled despite herself and leaned into her husband.

"I'll carry you over again when you come back home." Arthur laid her down in the backseat of the car and started it up. He drove back to the hospital.

Joan fell asleep before they got to the hospital. When she woke up in the bed again, she wasn't in anymore pain. This time, Arthur was sitting next to her. "Hi," she said.

"Hi. You feeling better?" Arthur hadn't left his wife's side since they arrived at the hospital. He wasn't going to let her out of his sights for the next few months.

"I can't feel anything at the moment. Am I on anything?" Joan was thrilled to be not feeling anything right now. She had hurt way too much during the poisoning.

Arthur laughed. "They gave you the antidote, so you're fine now. They have you on the good stuff to take away the pain for the time being. You'll be back to normal in a few days. No work for you. I'm putting my foot down on that."

Joan smiled at her husband. "I love you, Arthur." She wasn't about to let her marriage continue on the path that it had been now that she had nearly died. She wanted them to fix what went wrong.

"I love you too, Joan." He stood up and kissed her, then sat back down. He turned on the TV now that she was awake and okay.

"I bet I look like crap, don't I?" Joan hadn't bothered to look in a mirror when she was sick, but she probably didn't look good at all.

"No, you're beautiful like you always are." Arthur grabbed her hand and didn't let go. Joan drifted off to sleep again. He turned the volume down on the TV.

Joan was discharged from the hospital three days later, once she was deemed healthy enough to go home. "I've missed this place," Joan informed her husband as the car pulled up to the apartment building.

Arthur laughed. "Its missed you too, Baby." Joan wasn't acting like her usual self since the poisoning. He was secretly happy about that, although he missed his spitfire of a wife a little bit. She'd be back soon enough, though.

"I believe you promised you'd carry me over the threshold?" Joan wasn't about to let that go. Her husband had said he'd do it.

"That I did." Arthur picked Joan up when they were a few feet from their door and somehow unlocked it with his wife in his arms. They entered their apartment for the first time in days. He put his wife down, and Joan headed towards the couch.

"What do we have in the fridge?" Joan was starving. She was sick of the hospital food that she had been forced to eat for the past few days. And the agents that had visited her had refused to sneak in food. So had Arthur.

"I'll go and see what we have." Arthur returned with one of Joan's favorite meals and handed it to her.

"Thank you." Joan kissed Arthur and then dug into her dinner. It tasted much nicer than it would have if she hadn't been stuck in the hospital for a few days because an enemy wanted her dead.

"You're welcome." Arthur turned on the TV, and he and Joan started to watch a movie they had never seen before.

Joan and Arthur's crumbling and damaged marriage had finally started to repair, all because someone had tried to kill her.

Joan being poisoned had changed everything for the better. Arthur and Joan still had to work through their problems, but they weren't as bad as they had been before.

Nothing was ever going to come between their marriage again. Joan and Arthur were determined to not let things get that bad again.

They even began talking about starting a family, a conversation they had avoided for a long time.

Joan's poisoning had been a blessing in disguise.


End file.
